What was once one of Hollywood's strongest superhero franchises that's been in film history for nearly 20 years has reached the concluding chapter to its timeline. That's to say the road to getting there has been a bumpy one as the X-Men franchise at best performed like a yo-yo with the qualities of the films ranging from good to great to bad to simply terrible. In the case of Dark Phoenix, the film falls into the category of being a huge letdown that ends the current X-Men timeline with a whimper. After beginning strong in the early 2000's with Bryan Singers first two X-Men installments only to be ruined by Brett Ratner's largely disappointing third entry, the X-Men universe attempted to right the wrongs of the past by introducing the First Class trilogy which managed to clean up much of the mess that was created by other filmmakers in the timeline while re-establishing the franchise through a new pair of faces. Most of which are younger versions of the ones introduced from the older trilogy. First Class served as being a fine reboot for the franchise as it reintroduced the characters of Professor X and Magneto as much younger individuals who built the X-Men team together before parting ways over differences in philosophies. Though First Class succeeded in re-establishing the universe, Bryan Singer returned to the directors chair with Days Of Future Past and managed to blend both set of films together while erasing the work done by Brett Ratner with X-Men 3. X-Men: Apocalypse however, managed to turn out to be a huge step down from the earlier films in the First Class trilogy as it felt like the series as a whole was running out of steam and needed to be handed over to Marvel to get a full reboot. Watching the trailers of Dark Phoenix up until its release, one can say that notion was not wrong as the movie looked uninspired and lacked the fresh energy the other films had that drew fans to them. Dark Phoenix is not just a terrible movie, its the darkest moment in the X-Men franchise that ends a near 20-year timeline with a major whimper which is a total shame given the massive potential it had.
The plot for Dark Phoenix centers around the famous saga in the X-MEN comics with a young Jean Grey being taken to a school for mutants with special abilities after the death of her parents. As she grows up to be a young woman, she becomes trained to use her powers for good and controls them until an accident occurs, giving her more power as well as ones that are invariably corrupt. Directed by Simon Kinberg who helped co-write X-Men 3, the X-Men universe once again attempts to take another shot at the Dark Phoenix story now that the wrongdoings of previous filmmakers was erased with Days Of Future past while establishing a new timeline. One has to wonder why 20th Century Fox allowed Kinberg to attempt another Dark Phoenix storyline after the previous one he was involved with turned out to be largely disappointing. The new film lacked the heart and emotional message the strongest films in the X-Men franchise carried as Phoenix felt rushed and a poor attempt at replicating one of the episodes of the popular Saturday morning cartoon that aired during the 90's on Fox. Dark Phoenix carries with it powerful themes such as unchecked power, abandonment, truth, love, family, control, grief, and coping with the death of loved ones yet the film manages to fail at exploring most of these themes because there isn't enough time to develop them with the films brisk length. The end result feels rushed and lacks the stamp on the material that both Bryan Singer and Matthew Vaughn, the two best X-Men directors to date brought to their stories. The ultimate message behind Dark Phoenix says that incredible power can be hard to control as it corrupts the ones that possess it. Somehow as shocking and as sad as it is to admit it, X-Men 3 despite all its flaws and failure to properly capture the Phoenix saga on film, somehow does a better job at conveying that message than Dark Phoenix does. Yes, its that bad.
In terms of acting performances, the main cast does the best job they can do with the material that's given to them. The acting in the film is one of the films few high points which isn't saying much. James McAvoy despite delivering another strong performance as Charles Xavier is completely wasted in this film. The dude is born for this role and one must wonder how he would've fared if he was under another directors guidance with a stronger script. Michael Fassbender also does the best job he can with what he's given despite the fact that his character is also poorly developed and useless in this film. Jennifer Lawrence turns in a serviceable performance though one clearly gets the vibe that she's in this one for the paycheck, especially when one see's the direction they took her character. Nicholas Hoult like the rest of the main cast attempts to make the best out of the material presented as Beast as well as Tye Sheridan as young Cyclops. Alexandra Shripp and Evan Peters despite having promising roles in the previous X-Men films are given barely any room to truly grow or develop in this one. As talented as Jessica Chastain is, she feels out of place in this film and feels as if she's sleep walking through her part. In terms of playing Jean Grey, Sophie Turner does her best at trying to nail the part but she never truly feels like the young Jean Grey audiences know from Bryan Singers films nor represents a young Famke Janssen. Despite the majority of the performances being convincing, they lack the energy and spark that made the characters so engaging in the previous films which partially has to do with the films poor writing and directing. One wonders what the actors could've done with their roles had Matthew Vaughn from First Class returned to direct this one rather than everyone just feeling as if they wanted to get the film over and done with.
The problem with Dark Phoenix is not that its shorter than the previous First Class movies but that it feels rushed, distorted, lifeless, uninspired, emotionless, and lazy as a whole with an uneventful third act. The film lacks the grand and epic production that the other films had and feels smaller in scope despite its story being more destructive and intense than previous X-Men film plots. The production values from costume design to art-set decoration feel like a major step down with John Ottman's X-Men theme and score being sorely missed here and Hans Zimmer's score feeling misplaced. The films editing was poor with the film moving too quick with little to no character development at all. What made Singer and Vaughn's movies effective as X-Men films was that they structured their stories to carry deep human messages within the action, so that the audience could connect with the main characters and understand their situation. Singer mirrored his X-Men movies to parallel both the Civil Rights and LGBT movements in which both sides are essentially fighting for equality and acceptance. Vaughn understood the emotional core of those movies and carried those elements over to First Class giving the series a fresh new look while maintaining the heart of the previous X-Men films. Dark Phoenix is a film that's sorely lacking in a soul and doesn't possess much emotional weight towards it. There is nothing there besides blatant exposition and cringe-inducing dialogue, that lacks the polishing the other films had in the writing department. Despite how hard Simon Kinberg tries at being a first-time director, he's no Singer or Vaughn when it comes to handling this franchise nor James Mangold who helmed the fantastic Logan.
In terms of being a disaster, Dark Phoenix isn't on the same level as the 2015 Fantastic Four nor the recent Hellboy but for the X-Men franchise, its easily the worst installment and ranks lower than both X-Men 3 and X-Men: Apocalypse. The fact that the filmmakers could take the Phoenix saga and somehow make a worse movie than X-Men 3 is mind-blowing. For a series that's ranged from being phenomenal to being terrible, it deserves a far better end to its two decades of timeline building than this. Perhaps this is what fans needed so that the rights to the franchise can finally get passed onto Marvel so they can start fresh and bring the X-Men universe closer to both the comics as well as the iconic cartoon that used to air on Fox during the 90's. For a movie that was mean't to capitalize on the 90's era much like Days Of Future Past did with the 70's and Apocalypse with the 80's, Dark Phoenix doesn't really take much notice of the decade its in unlike this years Captain Marvel which capitalized on that era with a clever Blockbuster Video cameo. This movie is essentially the same film as X-Men 3 even going as far as killing off key characters midway without much showing much emotion. Despite it being the same movie basically, it feels less inspired and more dry which should never be the case when dealing with the Dark Phoenix storyline.
As far as this years comic book film rankings go, Dark Phoenix is the years first major disappointment as its story had potential to be an amazing X-Men movie but had the wrong person writing and directing it. What made the previous X-Men movies special (And dare I say the previous worst X-Men movies better than this one), was not the action or visual effects they showcased but the messages they carried and conveyed to the audience. Even if they're made just for purely entertainment purposes, the audience connected with those films and felt something after the credits rolled. Audiences will feel nothing for Dark Phoenix other than relief that it ended as well as heartbreak that nearly 20-years of cinematic buildup in the X-Men universe ends this way. Here's hoping that Marvel lays the franchise to rest for a couple of years then fully reboots it with a brand new cast and timeline as this series needs to be rid of the previous works in order for the audience to become connected with this universe again. As far as this fan is concerned, the X-Men timeline ends with both Days Of Future Past and Logan. Dark Phoenix is a major cinematic disappointment that's both lifeless and uninspired making for the worst kind of X-Men movie. It's been stated that the producer of the film hasn't bothered to see the official cut of the film yet, looking at the final version its no surprise as its simply embarrassing.
Final Verdict: SKIP IT
Final Verdict: SKIP IT
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